June 19 is National Reading Day across India to commemorate the enduring contributions provided by P N Panicker, the Father of the Library Movement in Kerala. The initiatives of the ‘Grandhashala Sangham’ that he spearheaded resulted in the widespread development of literacy and reading habits in the state during 1990s.

In fact, reading provides an excellent opportunity to break free from the shackles of dogmatic beliefs and narrow worldviews by allowing us to see the world from alternative perspectives. Hence, let’s explore some deeply insightful and beginner-friendly books that we can pick up on this National Reading Day.

1) The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak

Recounting the story of a Jewish, little girl named Liesel Meminger living through the trauma of Nazi Germany, The Book Thief is a heart-touching novel that is filled with historical events and seemingly “trivial” incidents of penetrating truths on human existence. The novel is told through the perspective of Death who is personified as the guardian of “souls.” This book helps us understand how a child might perceive genocide and human cruelty, while leaving us with a ray of hope through the recognition that, at the end of the day, our salvation lies in empathy and authenticity that is so often found in the hearts of children.

2. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner is a haunting, coming-of-age novel that follows Amir, a young boy from Afghanistan, and his complex friendship with Hassan, the son of his father's servant. Set against the backdrop of Afghanistan's political turmoil, the story explores Amir’s lifelong quest towards atonement for his failure to protect Hassan from a brutal assault by a local bully. This novel teaches how all of us are ultimately naked before our own conscience, and, through Amir’s rescue of Hassan’s son Sohrab from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, illustrates how redemption can be found in courage and self-sacrifice.

3. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, which is set in the American South during the 1930s, is another classic novel narrated by a young girl named Scout Finch. Atticus Finch, the father of Scott, is a principled lawyer who defends an African American man falsely accused of a crime at a time when racism was normalised and, even worse, celebrated. The novel teaches us what it means to stand by justice even when the whole world stands against you, while offering fundamental insights about ethical courage, compassion, and the poisonous nature of racism. The beginner-friendliness of the work? The narration of a six-year-old girl cannot be more accessible and enjoyable than this masterpiece.

4. Man’s Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl

This short non-fiction work is a classic tribute to hope from the brutal experiences of Holocaust Germany. Victor Frankl was an Austrian psychologist who endured intense starvation, trauma, sleepless nights of forced labour, and the loss of friends during the Second World War. While he was struggling as a prisoner in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, Frankl came to the realisation that the foundational truth that sustained the lives of prisoners was meaning or purpose. The belief that the war will be concluded in the near future and “we can go back to our family and do what we want” sustained some of them through the worst of hells. Thus, Frankl wrote in the work:

“Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress… We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms- to choose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

5. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Novah Harrari

Sapiens is another non-fiction, modern classic that gives us a bird’s-eye-view of humanity’s history in this world. Through his meticulous research and unmatched storytelling skills, Harari explains how our hunter-gatherer ancestors evolved from a common ape ancestor that we shared with chimpanzees and concludes by showing how “imagined realities” such as religions, corporations, and multinational companies shape human behaviour in the modern age. Reading Sapiens will fill our souls with awe at the extraordinary civilisation that Homo sapiens has built over thousands of years, while also deepening our understanding of how briefly we have been on this planet.

6. When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanidhi

Whether we like it or not, death and mortality are two primary aspects of existence that none of us can escape from. Paul Kalanadhi was at the peak of his life and career when he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in his mid-thirties. When Breath Becomes Air is a poignant memoir that he wrote throughout the last few months that he spent here. This beautifully written and soul-stirring text will remind us to cherish every moment that we have been gifted with in this brief hiatus that we call life.

Compiled by Deepak Rajeev